The July 27th test missile launch by USA in violation of Non Proliferation Treaty failed!

by MacGregor Eddy

Fr. Louie Vitale and MacGregor Eddy (myself) were arrested at 1:20 a.m. July 27, protesting the launch of a nuclear weapon delivery system from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The missile was destroyed by Vandenberg Air Force Base over the Pacific Ocean because of a malfunction (anomaly) .

Jim Haber and Mary Lou Anderson of the Nevada Desert Experience as well as World War II veteran Bud Boothe and legal observer Kelly Gray attended the midnight protest of the ICBM launch from Vandenberg Space Command near Lompoc, California. The nuclear-capable, solid fuel, high speed test missile was set to land in Kwajalein Atoll, in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific Ocean.

Luleå, 26th July – One hundred and seventy international peace activists from 17 countries today entered the North European Aerospace Test range in a massive act of nonviolent civil disobedience in the north of Sweden. Some 28 activists have been confirmed as arrested or detained, among them activists from Venezuela, Spain, Germany, Germany, UK and Finland.

A total of 201 people took part in the action, which aimed to expose the hidden role of the massive test range in the preparation for wars, including the testing of new military equipment such as drones, missiles and fighter planes.

The action started at midday with a pink carnival which involved people marking the test range and the road leading to it with pink arrows and the slogan ”War starts here, let’s stop it here!”. The airspace was marked by a release of pink balloons. Over 150 of the activists then entered the ”prohibited area” around the base in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience, to draw attention to the war preparations taking place there and to place NEAT on the map.

As we write this, 1,200 police in riot gear are descending upon Gangjeong village, the site of resistance to the US/ROK naval base; 500 are from the mainland peninsula and 700 from Jeju.

Last week, undercover police arrested three leaders. The village Chief Kang Dong Kyun was released, but Brother Song Kang Ho and Ko Kwon Il still remain in prison along with peace activist Choi Sung-hee, who has been in prison since May 19.

With all the prayers and positive energy coming to me from so many directions, I feel I’m doing very well here at the Ocilla jail.

This letter is being written to LaQuita with what the commissary calls a “ballpoint pen”. It is the skinny little filler for a pen so it is difficult to hold and write. It costs 60 cents. In the “real world” at the Dollar General store you can get 10 Bic pens for $1.00. LaQuita and Carol receives my letter and put it on the computer and email it out. I’m so grateful for their gift of time and energy to keep me connected.

Peace activist Bryan Law being taken away in a police car from Rockhampton Airport after he damaged an Australian helicopter. Photo by Chris Ison

BRYAN LAW DISARMS MILITARY HELICOPTER

For over two months Bryan Law has been telling the authorities and everyone else he was going to disarm a military helicopter during the Talisman/Sabre U.S./Australian military exercises, as an act of nonviolent resistance to the Afghan war.

Friends and foes alike barely believed it possible. But in broad daylight at 9 a.m. on July 21, Graeme Dunstan helped Law cut the lock on a perimeter fence at Rockhampton Airport and Law, despite very poor health from diabetes, rode his tricycle onto the tarmac and hammered on the helicopter with a garden mattock.

A miracle? One can only think so.

Bryan’s action follows in the tradition of the Ploughshares Movement, the nonviolent disarmament of weapons of war. Inspiration is found in the Bible scriptures of Isaiah (2:4) and Micah (4:3) where the prophets tell of a time when swords will be beaten into ploughshares, and Nations will no longer prepare for war.

Something happened in the Kansas City Municipal Court that doesn’t happen very often. A judge revealed her true self to the court, and Judge Franco is a liberal. This came as a surprise to most of us. The last time we appeared in Judge Franco’s court she was rude and mean, showing no interest in the cause that brought us to her court, not letting any of the nuke plant protesters have a chance to speak and not even allowing some of us a chance to tell her we had no intention of paying the fines or court cost she laid on us after our pleas of guilty.

Nonviolent resistance to this (Australian) winter’s fourth annual Talisman Sabre war games in Queensland was anchored at a community center in Rockhampton, where a few activists have been publicly promoting the protests for months. Notably, Bryan Law regularly spoke out on the town mall, declaring his intention to disarm a helicopter during the military exercises. Police arrested him for speaking out, only to be chastened by the judge who declared the case a matter of free speech, but nevertheless continued the case.

But then another offense was alleged, and Law was cited July 8 with threatening an aircraft, a crime punishable by up to ten years in prison. He was released with an order to stay away from the military base – an order breached two weeks later when Law kept his promise [see ploughshares story].

A military court in Portsmouth sentenced British conscientious objector Michael Lyons to seven months’ imprisonment on July 5, following a two-day trial.

Michael Lyons joined the Royal Navy as a medic in 2005, and in May 2010 he was notified that he would be deployed to Afghanistan later that year. Soon after, he applied for discharge as a conscientious objector, as he had developed a conscientious objection to participating in the war in Afghanistan in particular, and against war in general.